It wasn’t a surprise when Sigourney Weaver launched into stardom at the end of the ’70s. She was the daughter of a legendary television executive, and the striking 5’11” beauty had the elegant beauty of a disco diva. It was only a surprise that Sigourney Weaver became a household name thanks to a 1979 monster movie called Alien. People weren’t used to those kinds of movies getting critical acclaim and creating young stars.

Alien was only Sigourney’s third movie, too. The rave reviews helped, but it didn’t hurt that a lot of the film’s publicity featured pics of Sigourney stripped down in the film’s final moments. The studio kind of promoted a big Alien spoiler by pushing Sigourney as the film’s star–including that final scene with Weaver down to her underwear. To be fair, part of the marketing strategy involved keeping the monster under wraps. Who could do the same with Sigourney?

She entered the ’80s as an instant A-list actress. Sigourney was careful in her film roles, too. The murder mystery Eyewitness couldn’t catch an audience, but Sigourney and Mel Gibson both became serious actors in 1982’s The Year of Living Dangerously. She survived working with Chevy Chase in the 1984 bomb Deal of the Century, and had better luck with Saturday Night Live alumni in Ghostbusters.

Then she kept waiting for a decent script for an Alien sequel, and was rewarded with Aliens in 1986. (The action film also got Sigourney her first Oscar nominaton.) Sigourney graced her fans with plenty of nude scenes in the drama Half Moon Street, and then starred in Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl–both of which had her nominated for Oscars in, respectively, the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories. We still think plenty of guys were nominating her for Half Moon Street.

Sigourney wrapped up the ’80s with a surreal sexy role in Ghostbusters II. She spent the ’90s revisiting her Alien character while landing the occasional hit role in movies like Dave. She’s remained a sex symbol, too. Sigourney looked pretty great in Avatar, and was sexier than Alicia Silverstone in the recent supernatural comedy Vamps. Sigourney’s also a memorable MILF in 1997’s The Ice Storm–although a lot of adolescents were entranced by her low-cut space outfit in the beloved 1999 sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest.

You’ll be on a quest for your zipper while checking out these amazing pics of Sigourney over the years. Don’t believe people who tell you that it’s only recently that geeks seemed cool. Sigourney has made sci-fi and fantasy appealing to all kinds of guys for years. Now check out the reason that bustin’ made the Ghostbusters feel so good….